Now that Dark Souls is officially out in Japan, the infamously powerful black phantoms of yesterday have faded into the internet ether. In their stead, a new, uglier beast has reared its head at the many day-one purchasers: bugs. Not the squishy and crunchy kind of bug you’d expect to find in a fantasy-horror pastiche like Dark Souls, either. Technical bugs.

Some gamers have reported that the game will randomly freeze during online play, sometimes never even progressing beyond the main screen. From Software has stated that they are aware of these issues, and working diligently to locate and eradicate the bugs that are causing them. It’s unfortunate that a game-stopper such as this made it through testing, but such is the fate of online games: it’s always difficult to test the network capabilities on any sort of broad scale in a closed development environment.

That said, sales are already such that some stores are reporting they’ve sold through their shipments. With a little tweaking, From Software should have another hit on their hands.